Montessori Materials
A Montessori education is focused on teaching for understanding. Active learning through hands-on activities and exercises rather than “book learning” is emphasized in order to encourage the development of the creative and analytical mind. Dr. Montessori always emphasized that the hand is the chief teacher of the child. All equipment in a Montessori classroom allows a child to use their hands in the learning process. The tactile and kinesthetic system of learning permanently reinforces the skill to be learned – ‘muscular memory’ is a strong tool in the classroom. The special equipment that Dr. Montessori used is called auto-didactic which means self-correcting.
Curriculum
Practical life
Practical life in Montessori is a purposeful activity that develops fine motor control/coordination, and develops independence, concentration, and a sense of responsibility. Children learn to pour liquids, sweep/dust, button up/unbutton, etc. They develop the inner aptitude of calmness, order, concentration, coordination and fine motor skills. They learn:
- Preliminary activities ( pouring, spooning etc)
- Grace and Courtesy ( greetings, introducing self etc)
- Care of Self (dressing up independently, self serve snack etc)
- Care of the Environment (classroom chores)
- Movement ( walking on a line, silence game etc)
Sensorial
Sensorial work encourages children to focus on their senses in order to refine them and develop strong concentration skills. When working with Montessori sensorial materials, children begin to classify things around them and experiment with the environment. This work helps children organize their intelligence which leads to self-confidence both in the classroom and in the world. Children learn:
- Identification, comparison, gradation of colors, shapes, sounds, texture, smells and sizes
- Hand-to-eye coordination
- Spatial awareness
- Dimensions: length, width, height
- Basic geometric shapes, polygons
- Circle, ellipse, oval, cube, sphere, cylinder, pyramid, cone, rectangular prism, triangular prism, ovoid, and ellipsoid.
Language
Children learn how to speak, write, and read well. Our language art materials support the development of language skills in listening, writing, reading and concept development.
Speaking and Listening skills: Children learn to participate in group discussions, follow 1-2 step instructions, listen purposefully and respond appropriately. We also allow the children to speak in public.
Comprehension: Children learn to identify characters in a story, sequencing (beginning, middle and end). We discuss the problems that the character faces and how he/she resolves, main idea and summarize the plot of the story.
Writing: Children learn to develop fine motor control in preparation for writing. They learn to write lowercase and uppercase letters, write their names, form simple 3-4 letter words and simple sentences.
Reading: Phonetic sounds and names of letters. Decoding 3- to 4-letter words, sight words, phonogram & rhyming words,
Mathematics
The importance of one’s sense of order is emphasized in the development of the mathematical mind. Manipulative materials are used to allow children to discover abstract mathematical ideas through concrete models. These materials introduce mathematical concepts in order of concrete to abstract; starting with tactile impressions of quantities and progressing to memorization. Children learn:
- Number recognition & association of quantity
- Introduction to decimal system (units, tens, hundreds & thousands)
- Teens & Tens
- Operations (additions and subtraction concepts)
- Money (identity units of currency)
Culture & Science
In this area the children learn about the world around them. The culture area includes geography, science, botany and zoology. We will learn about the 7 continents, people around the world, universe, the life cycle of a plant, and different types of animals etc.
Cultural begins from the “Whole” to the “Parts”. Children first learn about the name of the planet that we live on. We teach them the three important elements on the Earth: Land, Air, Water. After they understand the three elements on the Earth, they learn to categorize “living” and “nonliving” things on the Earth. They also learn to categorize “animals” and “plants”. These are the “Whole” of the Cultural lesson. Starting from here, we extend their Cultural learning to the more detailed journeys—-the “Parts”.
In botany, children will learn the parts of the plant, and life cycle of the plant. We observe how the plant is growing and we discuss how we can take care of the plant.In zoology, children will learn the five animal kingdoms. We teach the children the names of the body parts of the animals and children will also learn the life cycle of the animals. In the month of March, we even had a butterfly kit in each classroom. Children observed the caterpillar hatch from the egg, grow bigger, form chrysalis, and turn into beautiful butterflies.
Art
The art program promotes: imagination, creativity and expression (verbal and visual)print and symbol awareness interpretation and reflection of life eye-hand-brain coordination aesthetic awareness and self-esteem hands-on, self-directed learning, open-ended playself confidence & self . Activities include:
- Art projects using using variety of mediums like tempera paint, clay, watercolors, chalk, markers, and colored pencils.
- Elements of Art that children learn during the process of creating art work: Color, lines, shapes, texture.